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The Time is Ripe for Crev 'raining

6th November 1964
Page 76
Page 77
Page 76, 6th November 1964 — The Time is Ripe for Crev 'raining
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

BY R. D. CATER

nVER the past few months there has been a lot of talk about the need to improve the braking characteristics of the artic. It would appear, from all this, that in the artic we have produced a monster, which is so uncontrollable in service that it is frowned upon by both operator and public alike.

I hardly think this is true, and believe that the machine is being maligned because of the lack of skill of a small proportion of its handlers—and we all know the results of giving a dog a bad name. Many operators of large fleets can, I am sure, produce records covering millions of miles of troulee-free artic operation, and this alone goes to show that the monster is not, in fact, such a violent beast. The secret is, of course, in the selection of the driver.

In days gone by it was possible for • the haulier to employ driving staff of such a calibre that, given a few hours with an experienced man, they would happily go off with the artic and produce a week's wOrk with very little bother. The state of the labour market today is such that it is no longer possible to obtain many of these highly skilled transport drivers who, after serving a very testing training—moving up through the ranks as van boy,, trailer mate, light van driver, heavy lorry driver, finally finishing on lorry and trailer, rigid eight, or artic—were capable of taking on practically anything.

Transport today goes without, so far as is possible, the second man. This eliminates the valuable schooling that used to be available to the transport recruit, and the industry is the loser in the long run.

No other industry requires such a degree of self-reliance as does transport. And no vehicle demands such a high level of skill, to be safely operated, as the artic, be it large or small. How is it then, that when without any training—save perhaps a run round the block—a man is turned loose on the public highway with a vehicle worth anything up to £8,000, and capable of wreaking terrible

D2 destruction • in the event of it getting out of control, the vehicle is automatically blamed?

For years I have been of the firm opinion that driver training is more important than fancy braking systems and, having been intimately connected with the industry for 22 years I speak from experience when I say that, with few exceptions, adequate training is almost non-existent. The man behind the wheel is the most important part of the haulier's equipment, and the sooner this is recognized the better.

Any other industry that calls for a high degree of skill, and in which the lack of such skill has a direct bearing on the safety of the general public, provides very comprehensive training for its operatives. The lorry driver requires, in this day and age, a tremendous amount of skill and concentration. He cannot hope to learn the intricacies of his trade unless he is trained to do so, or he practises for a considerable period, unguided, to the detriment of the vehicle and the danger to life and limb.

All the talk of improved braking falls on stony ground if the driver does not know, how and where, to use the equipment he is given. Frequently bandied about over the last couple of years, the word " cowboy " has been applied to the young tearaway who is allowed to jump up in the cab of all classes of goods vehicle, and roar off up the country, generally to the detriment of the industry at large. To be fair, it is not always the wish of the haulier to use this type of driver, but very often a " flier " gets preference over a good, steady chap because on the face of it he turns out more productive running. Looked at from a long-term point of view, however, this seldom turns out to be the case, and the results can be seen almost any day littering the forecourts of numerous repair agents up and down the country.

The much discussed, proposed h.g.v. licence would do little or no good to remedy this state of affairsbecause it would not produce any test for the prospective driver to pass. Surely the onus to train staff and subsequently to present them for an official test lies with the industry. Apprenticeships for toolmakers are not provided by the nation, but by the industry that needs them to carry out their business. So then should the haulage industry train its future staff (and, with the Industrial Training Act, may soon have to).

It should be remembered that a lot of the very good drivers that have been produced through the system mentioned earlier are about to reach retiring age. And although it will not be generally admitted within the industry, this element has been responsible for the basic training that has carried the industry over the past two decades, in that they trained the bulk of the present day "old hands ", most of whom started their days as mates of one sort or another in the 1930s. No longer is this valuable experience passed on to the younger man because, as I said earlier, the second man is largely eliminated.

So we reach a position where, unless something in the form of training is very soon organized, there will be no one in the garage that the newcomer can safely go to for information which he must obtain purely by having an inquiring mind. This, surely, is bad for the industry in general and it is aggravated by the fact that, because the lorry driver is rated as such a low member of society (though goodness only knows why this should be) a large number of the wrong types are attracted to the fold. Invariably these types are of a singularly uninquiring mind and the quality of drivers will inevitably decline.

There are some companies that are making an effort to train their driving staff and they must be congratulated for their efforts. However, the skill of the lorry driver is not only tied to his capability or otherwise in handling his vehicle, but also in his being able to ascertain how the vehicle will behave under different load conditions.

Axle loadings are important in the stability obtainable when braking, but what engineer can foresee the many varied conditions of loading that a vehicle will be called upon to operate under during perhaps 12 years of working life? What is more important, how many drivers realize the difference that a high or low centre of gravity will make to his vehicle's braking distance? Surely the moral here is that a well-informed driver, although not being a B.Sc., will be a better risk than the totally uninformed.

Any transport engineer worth his salt can tell the difference in a vehicle driven by an old hand and one driven by a "cowboy ". The very fact that this is possible is enough to recommend suitable training.

Vehicle builders have, I think, produced very fair heavy goods vehicles over the past few years, and it may well be possible that a lot of their problems connected with failures of their products, have been caused by uninformed driving. As machinery gets more complicated so the operatives must receive more comprehensive training as to its correct use. Until this is done the stability of the attic will remain a problem.

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